Released just as
punk
was taking hold on the public's imagination in America and making groups like
Jethro Tull
seem like dinosaurs on their way to extinction,
Bursting Out
became a seemingly perpetual denizen of the cutout bins for years afterward. However, it happened to be a good album, a more-than-decent capturing of a live
Tull
concert from Europe. The sound is remarkably good, given the group's
arena rock
status at the time, and the repertoire is a solid representation of the group's history, going all the way back to
"A New Day Yesterday"
from their second album and up through 1978's
Heavy Horses
, with stops along the way for
"Bouree,"
"Aqualung,"
"Locomotive Breath,"
"Cross-Eyed Mary,"
and a compact reprise of
Thick as a Brick
. Some of these tracks work better than others -- the tendency here is to play loud and hard, and sometimes that just doesn't translate well on record; seeing
"Locomotive Breath"
probably worked better than hearing it. ~ Bruce Eder